President of the UN Security Council for February, Malta has announced that the Libyan situation will be discussed in an open briefing presented by the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Head of UNSMIL, Abdoulaye Bathily, on the 27th of this month.
In its preliminary report, published on its website, the UN Security Council monitored the obstacles in the Libyan scene, as the prolonged political stalemate contributes to economic and security instability in the country.
The report indicated that the progress of the national elections had faltered for more than a year, due to the postponement of the elections and the continuing standoff between the prime minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and Fathi Bashagha. It also pointed out that little progress had been made towards agreeing on a path conducive to elections, despite the resumption of talks between the heads of House of Representative and High Council of state, Agila Saleh, and Khaled Al-Mishri respectivly, as the two met in Cairo on January 5th.
In terms of the security track, the Security Council recalled that the United Nations Support Mission in Libya will continue to support the work of the "5 + 5" joint military committee, including facilitating the implementation of the 2020 ceasefire agreement and reinforcing it by starting joint work between the International Team to Monitor the Ceasefire and the Libyan Observers in Sirte, since the security situation remained tense across the country.
The main issues remain; the unstable political, economic and security situation linked to the uncertain electoral path in Libya. One of the UN Security Council's concerns will be how to consolidate common ground between the two rival governments, so that they can agree on a constitutional framework to pave the way for the long-awaited Libyan elections, according to the report.
Bathily anticipated his fourth briefing to the Security Council, since assuming his duties on September 25th, by intensifying his consultations with the various Libyan parties and involving neighbuoring countries in efforts to mature an initiative for a political and security settlement of the crisis, which aims primarily to reach consensus on a constitutional basis on which elections will be conducted as soon as possible, as well as the removal of mercenaries and foreign forces from the country.
